Downloads of mobile games grew significantly in February, up by almost 40 per cent year-on-year, data from analytics company Sensor Tower showed.

Globally, more than 4 billion mobile games were downloaded, a 39.1 per cent spike. In China alone, the number downloaded from the App Store surged 62.2 per cent.

Craig Chapple, mobile insights strategist for EMEA, told Mobile World Live part of the reason for the spike in China was a large backlog in licence approvals following a freeze on clearances in 2018.

South Korea saw a 10.9 per cent surge in mobile games downloads, totalling 56 million in February.

Globally, total app downloads hit 10.4 billion in February, up 21.9 per cent year-on-year. Gross revenue rose 14.2 per cent to $7.2 billion.

Across all app categories, App Store downloads in China soared by almost 48 per cent in the period. The market generated 9.3 per cent of global downloads during the month.

The increased app downloads figures for February coincide with the spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus), with a resulting rise in tracking service accesses. In South Korea, for example, Chapple noted two key apps generated 500,000 and 1 million downloads apiece during the month.